Simultaneous communication with autistic and other severely dysfunctional nonverbal children

Despite its widespread application, the teaching of speech does not appear to be effective with all autistic and other severely dysfunctional, nonverbal children. A body of recent evidence points to the peculiarities in the information processing of these children and to the importance of gestures as aids or alternatives to speech. The present study reports on the use of simultaneous communication (gestures plus speech) with five such children. The fact that four of the five children showed marked gains in their ability to communicate over a 5-week period raises some theoretical and methodological issues pertinent to the treatment of autistic and autistic-like children and to our general understanding of the processes involved in nonverbal communication.